For the female founder, the creative entrepreneur, and the local business owner who is pouring her heart into her work but feeling overwhelmed, overstretched, and under-rewarded.
Running a business can be a lonely journey. You're the visionary, the maker, the marketer, and the bookkeeper, all rolled into one. But when the weight of it all leads to burnout, it's time for a new approach.
Many local business owners have shared how they feel swamped by competing businesses and family needs. With rapid external influences such as AI, technological advancements, global instability, and communication overload, staying clear and focused is a daily challenge. The Hedgehog concept, adapted from Jim Collins ’ book Good to Great, can help us find a dynamic focus that brings clarity and helps us make strategic decisions.
When I heard that our WhatsApp group was “too busy,” my first reaction was panic. Had I ruined something that mattered?
Instead of reacting, I used the Double Diamond design thinking process to pause, reflect, and redesign my communication. What I discovered changed the way I make decisions in my business — especially when feedback feels uncomfortable.
This is a story about clarity, courage, and refusing to make decisions from stress.
Celebrating six months of Her Circle, we’re marking International Women’s Day with a community climb up Knockomagh Hill overlooking Lough Hyne. Open to everyone — women and men — this gathering is a celebration of women, care-centred business, and a hopeful future rooted in balance and belonging. Join us on March 8th.
From a young age, I trusted an inner compass—a felt sense of integrity and direction. Following it gave my life meaning, but it also led me through loneliness, grief, and a painful reckoning with the belief that meaning guarantees safety.
This is a reflection on will, integrity, and what changes when we stop outsourcing our safety and learn to sail with the forces within us.
I grew up believing that rest had to be earned. For me, there was a magic number: 38.4 — sick enough to be allowed to stop, but not too sick to enjoy being cared for. Years later, I can see this pattern clearly in myself and in my coaching work:
so many of us learned to rest only when our bodies, minds, or lives force us to.
What if we operated in this world within our capacity? What if we didn’t have to navigate the constant experience of lack?
With the new year starting, I felt the pull to design and clarify 2026. But I didn’t feel ready. 2025 went so fast, and I was tired. The holidays did not charge me up. I came into January with a deep need to rest, to stop.
I didn’t feel clear, and the idea of deciding on yearly goals and setting up projects made me want to crawl under the duvet.
Chaos has been my lifelong companion. Growing up undiagnosed neurodivergent, I learned to survive by organising the mess — inside and out. But what happens when sorting is no longer the answer?
In this reflective piece, I explore chaos, creativity, coaching, and what it means to end a year without rushing to fix or define what comes next.
Words like overwhelmed, juggling, busy, tired, and stressed are ones I know intimately. And they’re words I hear again and again from the women I work with. Running a business brings freedom and creativity—but it can also bring a level of load and mental noise that is simply too much for one person to hold.
In January 2026, I’m offering a new 4-week hands-on course in Clonakilty for women who want to feel clearer, calmer, more creative and more focused in the year ahead.
She let her body move with the fast rhythm, responding in small ways to the movements of the people around her. A back arched forward and arms moving like around a fire; quick jumps and fast leg movements; arms moving in curves and circles; she exchanged smiling glances with the dancers, letting her body dissolve and forget its form. She could see lines of light extending from each palm and foot. The lines were connecting between the dancers, coming in and out, moving and twisting, colour shifting and changing. They were all connected, and together they were making a beautiful vision of remembrance. This is what she came here for.
